If you're looking for a good alternative to MySQL, you might want to check out MariaDB. This fork of the popular open source database management system now boasts a foundation to spread the word on how it can help users looking for something tasty that doesn't come with a side of Oracle.

After losing to HP in a breach-of-contract lawsuit at the beginning of last month, Oracle this week announced that it would comply with the court ruling. The software giant will keep developing its database and applications to run on HP's Itanium servers. But that's not the end of the story.

Attention members: the forums will be in maintenance mode Monday, August 13th, late in the afternoon, Eastern Standard Time. The forum may be down briefly during this time or may be viewable (you may not be able to post, but you will be able to read other's threads). We apologize in advance for the inconvenience, but it is a necessary step towards moving our sites to a new server so that we may better serve you, our audience. Thanks for your patience during this process, and if you have any questions, please direct them to james@developershed.com.

In this tenth part of a nineteen-part article series on the secure shell, we'll study the issues related to using SSH in an environment that requires outgoing connections to go through a proxy server or gateway host, as you would commonly find in the corporate world. This article is excerpted from chapter 11 of the book SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition, written by Daniel J. Barrett, Richard E. Silverman and Robert G. Byrnes (O'Reilly; ISBN-10: 0596008953).

In this ninth part of a nineteen-part series covering advanced topics in SSH, you'll learn how to make Pine use SSH. We'll cover such topics as mail relaying, news access, and using a connection script. This article is excerpted from chapter 11 of the book SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition, written by Daniel J. Barrett, Richard E. Silverman and Robert G. Byrnes (O'Reilly; ISBN-10: 0596008953).

In this eighth part of a nineteen-part article series on advanced topics in SSH, you'll learn about the e-mail program Pine, IMAP authentication, and how to handle it all through the secure shell. This article is excerpted from chapter 11 of the book SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition, written by Daniel J. Barrett, Richard E. Silverman and Robert G. Byrnes (O'Reilly; ISBN-10: 0596008953).

In this seventh part of a nineteen-part article series on SSH, we'll delve more deeply into the passive mode, and tell you the sequence of steps you must take to set up data-connection forwarding. This article is excerpted from chapter 11 of the book SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition, written by Daniel J. Barrett, Richard E. Silverman and Robert G. Byrnes (O'Reilly; ISBN-10: 0596008953).

In this sixth part of a nineteen-part series on SSH, we'll take a look at FTP's difficulties with network address translation (NAT) and how to get around them. We'll also show you a way to forward the FTP data connection. This article is excerpted from chapter 11 of the book SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition, written by Daniel J. Barrett, Richard E. Silverman and Robert G. Byrnes (O'Reilly; ISBN-10: 0596008953).

In this fifth part of a nineteen-part article series on SSH, you will learn about the benefits of putting a client in passive mode. This is particularly important in reference to the interactions between FTP, SSH, and firewalls. This article is excerpted from chapter 11 of the book SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition, written by Daniel J. Barrett, Richard E. Silverman and Robert G. Byrnes (O'Reilly; ISBN-10: 0596008953).

In this fourth article of a nineteen-part series on SSH, we'll take a close look at FTP protocol. This will assist you in understanding the issues that can crop up between FTP and the secure shell. This article is excerpted from chapter 11 of the book SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition, written by Daniel J. Barrett, Richard E. Silverman and Robert G. Byrnes (O'Reilly; ISBN-10: 0596008953).

In this third part of a nineteen-part article series that delves deeply into SSH, we'll cover some general precautions you should take when doing batch jobs, and begin a discussion of FTP and SSH. This article is excerpted from chapter 11 of the book SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition, written by Daniel J. Barrett, Richard E. Silverman and Robert G. Byrnes (O'Reilly; ISBN-10: 0596008953).

In this second part of a nineteen-part series on SSH, you'll learn how to use an agent, and begin studying hostbased authentication. This article is excerpted from chapter 11 of the book SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition, written by Daniel J. Barrett, Richard E. Silverman and Robert G. Byrnes (O'Reilly; ISBN-10: 0596008953).

Ready to take your knowledge of SSH to the next level? This nineteen-part article series will cover some advanced topics pertaining to the secure shell. It's excerpted from chapter 11 of the book SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition, written by Daniel J. Barrett, Richard E. Silverman and Robert G. Byrnes (O'Reilly; ISBN-10: 0596008953).